N.Y.-based experiential marketing agency Engine Shop has acquired L.A.-based Digital Wave Media Group, which specializes in content production. Digital Wave will rebrand under the Engine Shop umbrella and relocate its L.A. office to Engine Shop’s existing space in Beverly Hills. Digital Wave CEO RICK WILLIAMS will take on the title of Engine Shop VP/Content Production. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Engine Shop CEO BRIAN GORDON said that the addition of a content production arm will help the agency deliver everything that these clients need for an experiential event. Gordon: “Capturing content and thinking in advance about what type of content you want to capture so you can build the activation and experience around that, as opposed to be it being thought of afterward, is really where things are going right now.” He said when the company decided the time was right to bring content production in-house, Digital Wave was the “first thing we looked at.” Engine Shop became familiar with Digital Wave’s work while collaborating previously -- with Digital Wave as a vendor -- on campaigns for brands including Anheuser-Busch and ESPN. Gordon said of Digital Wave’s work on the Bud Light Lime Turn Up Summer campaign, “They had a concept of coming with sort of an individual person’s journey through this experience. So he would come up with it and storyboard it and actually follow the consumer through the whole experience, like a day in the life. So it was a real combination of traditional stuff with just really cool content capture to actual vignettes and storytelling and working with talent and everything else.” The content production firm, which was founded in '07, has also worked with McDonald's, Reebok, Johnson & Johnson and Jack Daniel's. The addition of Digital Wave brings Engine Shop to 75 employees.
